St Timothy Presbyterian Church in Toronto: Sermons

John 12:24-25

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Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life.

Today’s since, today’s Mother’s Day, I would like to meditate on their love and sacrifice for us.

Apostle Paul once said this by the grace of God, I am what I am. This is his confession that there’s no part, no experience in his life that is without God’s intervention and grace. In other words, the ownership of his life does not belong to him and God is the source of his existence and his life. As we are celebrating Mother’s Day today. The relationship between the parents and their children has the same meaning and implications. As children, we are what we are by our parents, grace, the fact that we were born and raised in this particular way and that everything we are enjoying this life, uh, due to our parents love and sacrifice. There’s an expression in Korean. For those who know Korean, the word is called “baeum mandokk”. That Korean letter is called “baeum mandokk”. It is one word but actually has four different Chinese characters. And each character has his own meaning. Bae. The first letter means betrayal or neglect. The second letter means grace. The third letter means you forget that we forget something about, and the fourth letter is almost like the grace of virtue, something very, a kindness and goodness. What this means is the one who has received so much grace from others, but he or she forgot about it to totally.

So the word describes such condition of ungratefulness. Last week I flew to Washington DC on Tuesday night and flew back to Toronto on Wednesday night due to my personal matter, the uncle who used to live in DC for a long time, they moved to the states in 1975. He had passed away recently and his children to whom I’m a cousin asked me to come and lead the funeral service for their father. The uncle was the first child of eight siblings and most of his younger sisters brothers live in the states. So my cousins will have a few people from his father’s side. They were fathers side but not many from their mother’s side, which is me and my sister. So on Sunday night, I purchased a round-trip flight and I flew to DC on Tuesday evening and let the funeral service on Wednesday morning and burial site service and reception, lunch, reception and so on, and flew back home on Wednesday evening.

As I reflected, within 24 hours, so many things happened and I reflected on this trip, I was able to realize that the whole trip and the whole funeral services will be done by God’s grace, by God’s grace, I am who I am and by God’s grace. By God’s grace, I was able to lead the funeral service in a meaningful way. I realized that what I’ve learned any experience from this church that really has become my foundation, being able to lead the service in both languages and this is something I would never imagine when I first come to this church a few years ago. Being able to communicate with the funeral director with regard to the whole schedule and to be able to guide her step by step, was done by God’s grace through the experiences from this church. There have been a few in my past who offered a prayer for me, who provided encouragement for me and if who guided me with their wisdom, I’m humbly recognizing that how much I am indebted to this faith community.

Jesus said this in today’s texts, very truly, I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed, but if it dies, it produces many seeds. These are the words Jesus spoke to his disciples as he foresaw the cross in his mind, the fact that our kernel must die so that it will produce many seeds, signifies the death and resurrection of the Cross, the sacrifice of one person. Jesus will bring life for many, and when Jesus said this, he, he said, he began his words by saying very true and in the original language which is in Greek, very truly is simple. Amen. Amen.

Amen is a Greek word and Hebrew word, the same word, and NRSV translates that as very truly Jesus is about to say something very important. He truly needs it. Listen up, guys. I have to say this. You need to remember what I’m going to say. As a matter of fact, the verse 23, which is the very right, the verse right before today’s text indicates such a moment has just arrived. 23 goes, Jesus replied, the hour has come for the son of man to be glorified. As you know, according to the gospel of John, this hour thing is so crucial to understanding the ministry of Jesus. Until now, Jesus kept saying to people, my hour has not come yet. Remember the story of Canaan wedding at Canaan Kinda know Canaan. Yeah, wedding at Canaan. Everybody’s asking, show us. Reveal yourself, but Jesus said the hour has not come yet, but now Jesus is saying such hour has come and because of this I’m going to talk about the cross that has both death and resurrection.

Because of Jesus’ sacrifice, many will gain eternal life and many will live an abundant life, and my friends, such a spiritual principle applies to other areas of our lives. As a matter of fact, nothing in this world will be done without summons, love and sacrifice. Whatever we are enjoying in this life was the result of summons, sacrifice, prayers, and tears for us, so let us not take anything for granted. A concrete example is that we cannot think of our parents love and their sacrifice for us because of our parent’s sacrifice. We are who we are.

As we have so many newborns in our community. When a couple gets married and when they have their own babies, they will become more appreciative of their own parents love and how much they had to sacrifice for them. You know certain things in life. Only when you actually go there and experience it, you, you’ll know better. I, myself is not immune to this. As I have children myself, I came to realize how much my parents had to sacrifice for me. I gradually, but surely understand my parents, especially my mother’s sacrifice and love more and more now these days. My mother is 80 years old and she became a widow 46 years ago. That means I’m not younger than 46. Right? And I realized that as she grew old, her love grew deeper too. I’m not sure whether I did not recognize that, but these days I recognize that my mother, her love became deeper and genuine and that is the phenomenon I observed from our KSM congregation too. Some of them I have known for many, many years, like 16 years as they grew old, I realize they are love and personality grew deeper and deeper. I think it is because the day they will meet their creator again is approaching. I think It is because they feel that life on earth has not really left much.

When I think about my mother, she tried to live as a person of faith and love in a general sense got deeper out of her concern for me, I get to hear quite often from her saying, don’t worry about me. I’m okay. Go back to church. Whenever I make a phone call asking if there’s anything I can buy for her or if she needs anything, she would not want to take much time from me from my busy life. She saying I’m okay.

Two years ago, before I went to South Africa, she told me, when you are having a hard time in South Africa, do not think about anything else, but think about how much sacrifice Jesus made for you and how much suffering Jesus had to go through that actually helped me to sustain my focus and to be able to overcome many difficulties and later I realized that my mother herself went through what she told me by living by herself for many years, by taking everything to the Lord every day, dying with Christ and living with Christ. We are all indebted to love each other, to our parents, to our siblings, to our church members, and to others. We all love. When you are young, relatively younger than me and young. It doesn’t come to you when you, when you pass 50, 55 like Edward, you have this sense of appreciation more how beautiful life is. It is too short to just waste away. We need to pour out our love, genuinely treat each other, pray for each other. It is such a short life. We realized that when we realize this condition we are in, we will be able to reach out to others with genuine love and care. When even a kernel of wheat falls and dies in God, God will make it grow and make it bear much fruit. Amen. Let our love and care go through the cross. Let us embrace the cross. When we do everything tight, die with Christ, live with Christ.

Whether we are serving where we are caring for each other. Where we are practicing whatever we do, let us embrace the cross every for everything, every moment. God will make our life bear much fruit. If a person who can realize that he or she is the fruit of the parents, love, and sacrifice, I believe that he or she has succeeded in life. I’m not like I’m making a lot of money but having that kind of understanding, appreciation, insight about the life that is such a blessing and that person will love, will be able to love others genuinely.

When I got back from Washington, D, C and reported about the funeral to my other uncles in Korea, they said thank you to me quite often. It was a strange feeling. I thought to myself, they didn’t really have to say thank you to me, but I understand why they said that to me. Our parents’ age would appreciate even a very small thing from us. They would be thrilled to see hearing, hearing such things from us. I thank God for our parents who allowed us to know, to taste, to feel the love of God through their love for us.

God’s love becomes concrete tangible to us through our parents. Love. Today’s Inner Voice echoed the same thoughts. So I want to share with you some of them. Mother’s love is the best example that shows us what love is. When we see mothers love, we see the true face of love. She bears everything for us, always believed that we will do well, always hopes for us and endures all things for us. We are here today because of our mother’s love. Let us thank them today for their sacrificial love and let us live with deep gratitude for teaching us the beauty of love. Love comes down to us from God, from top to bottom, from one generation to another generation.

As much as we receive it from our parents. Let us overflow it to our children. Our children will remember and keep the love for a long time and they will bear much fruit in their life. I remember the text Reverend KIM preached for KSM last Sunday. He quoted from Isaiah, Isaiah 55 and verse 10. It says, as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater. The love from God will not go to waste. It will enrich our lives and it will bear fruit. For many, I thank God for our parents one more time because of their love and sacrifice. We are who we are. Happy Mother’s Day.

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Luke 11:1-13

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Thank you Choir.

Grateful for the invitation to be among us today. Thankful for Simon who decided this was a good idea, so if things go wrong, please find him and do something to him.

When we were children, we were encouraged to say our prayers at meals and especially at night before we went to bed. Sometimes if we had good enough parents, no parent is perfect, just good enough or who are religious or in our case Christians, they might even pray with us. They may again, if we are lucky, know some prayers that they pass onto us and each night we may kneel and pray and ask for blessings on our kin and sometimes even on our pets and dolls or trucks if you’re a guy. All in good order, we eat our food and go to sleep. Believing all is well with the world and that is perfect, but only if perhaps we are three or five or even seven years old saying our prayers is a good thing after all. That is until Jesus. I called him to our passage we read today. He must have been doing something strange to have his disciples take a second look and ask for prayer air. So before we explore what he was doing and why the disciples asked and what he taught them about prayer, shall we turn to God for elimination? Will you pray with me?

God of all grace and love. We your children gather this morning in praise and worship and in prayer that you will shed light on your words to us and quicken our minds and our hearts to hear you and to obey for your glory sake. Amen.

The average you knew how to pray. Meditation was part of the tradition. It was woven into our everyday life. They paused to pray from time to time, and the righteous pharisee would even let God know, he was not a like a pagan sinner. He prayed three times a day and fast. Remember that guy who went to church and told God, look at me. He does what fulfills the requirements of Jewish law. The sinners would cry out evening, morning, and noon in distress to God. When we follow the story of Daniel, we find that he makes prayers at the same times of the day. Morning, afternoon, evening, fixed prayers, wrote prayers, saying prayers but the Jews were not alone in praying that way, the religious people in the Mediterranean cultures prayed similarly. The Muslims do the same. You hear the calls to prayer,

and then

there was more the pagans who worshiped many gods would not only say their prayers, but offer the same words over and over again. Almost like incantations. They would add various gyrations with your incantations. I said there were coaxing the gods to act on their behalf, and many of you may remember the story of Elijah and the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel. Thing’s got so bad that they were cutting themselves in a frenzy as the uttered the incantations. Elijah had to suggest that they get louder because they are God, Baal, may perhaps be in the washroom, is not called private for nothing. No disturbing, and moms with many children know that sometimes it is the best spot in the house to have some quiet and some peace. That was how the Jew and the surrounding pagans prayed in the day. Perhaps that is how we pray too. Oh God, Oh God, Omg, Omg. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Three times. No prayers for the many snacks in between. They have nothing to do with God and fasting. What kind of creature is that? So with this kind of visual for prayer, Jesus is attitude and form of prayer may have been different enough to attract the attention of the disciples.

In the other version of this story, also in the gospels, they wanted to learn to pray the way John’s disciples prayed. Apparently friendly John the Baptist had taught his followers how to pray and so Jesus’s disciples wanted in on the action so Jesus gives them steps to prayer in bite size portions. It was one of those, eat this, not to that moment. First, acknowledge God’s fatherhood. Oh, I know a few feminists have had a field day with this concept of the fatherhood of God, but did you hear about the Southern Baptist old nan who said, if the KJV was good enough for Jesus, it’s good enough for me. You missed that. It is almost like that with me. Jesus called God father because of what is signified in that day. One was nothing without father, father was everything. Sons are next because they become fathers. You and I, because of our cultures, understand that right to say father meant you have security with a capital “S”.

You had someone who didn’t just have your back, but your front and your sides and what is not to hollow. When you get to that and then you can ask for more of who he is to be spread all over the world because you’ve experienced what it means to have security with a capital “S”, front, back, sides, and even overhead covered and capsulated. In this one you called father. All because he his father. Our father, who art in heaven, hallowed be your name. Let your kingdom explode, and from that analogy, oh father, you can come in, ask for daily sustenance. Give us each day our daily bread. If you can’t ask, then you don’t have a father or you are not a son, and if you don’t get that, you’re in deep trouble. Everybody should get that. It is as easy to get it as the nonsensical examples Jesus offers for those who still doubt. You have doubt you just go and ask. You rush in minus your shirt and say, Dad, Dad, dad, you don’t get that. So Jesus gives them examples. Example one, the illustration of the visitor at night. To get the real point Jesus is making here, you have to transport yourself from Etobicoke to a village in Galilee and remove the image of some rooms with a hole in a basement in a man cave and replace it with a one room with a dirt floor where everyone, including sheep, live, eat, sleep.

If you think even your studio apartment, you missed the point. Hospitality is key here. In a culture where inhospitality is the worst form of Sim, of inhumanity, the message would be clear to the hearings. The greatest Antisocial Act is not road rage on the 401, I don’t know where the 401 is, but I’ve heard it before.

It is not road rage on the 401, but not seeing and meeting the need of a neighbour and no, you may not offer to pay for their food in the next restaurant, however, push, in that culture, you have to step over a wife and children and a few sheet and off our bread and see, this request was not even for the sake of the troublesome neighbour in need, but someone removed from them that you don’t even know from Adam’s cat. If you met Adam in the day and you were expected implored to answer that request at midnight, just when you were hitting the sweet spot of your sleep and there is more if this illustration wouldn’t work for you. How about you fathers? If your son were to ask you for the flesh of an animal from the sea, would you give him the meat of a snake?

I hear there is a lunch after. If they asked you for an egg, would you offer a scorpion? Or if they asked you for bread, would you offer stone? You see this as the point you made? Trick them with the flesh of a snake for fish as copy on for egg and stone for bread. These are staples everywhere you go to the grocery store, at least you may buy an egg and some fish and some bread. In the Mediterranean, it is so easy to mistake one of the staples of life for the other.

The eel and the snake would look the same and the egg and the scorpion will look the same because in that day they had white scorpions, not the black ones and there were so big and if they’re folded their tails in, they look like eggs. They were in abundance. And if you get past the sliced bread in your grocery store, Loblaws/Metro and thought of the hand formed gluten free bread. In an old fashioned switch oven. You can see how a stone kind of imitate bread. So you might coming from the field after a hard day’s work is sit down to dinner and it’s only after your two front teeth are out and you come to even fathom that because you’ve been bitten by a snake and stung by a scorpion. That you realize you have been tricked and you wonder, dad did that? No Way. Jesus is saying even evil father’s, sinners, like all of us know not to mess with food in a desert where land is passed in, a good meal is hard to come by. When hunger strikes and you see a meal spread, you want to sit down and eat quickly. Plus it was dad who set the table. Jesus is saying, if human beings don’t do that one to do that, then you should not think that God the father from whom all of us get to the concept of parenthood would do that. We just happened to have come through our parents. There’s a bumper sticker I’ve seen somewhere and it says this very well. Please drive carefully. Many people are cost by accidents,

but God knew you and loved you before he made you known and loved before he made you. If your earthly father is dreaming good things for you, what school you go to, what job you have in the future, what house you live in, what your children and your grandchildren will become, and dreaming and plotting and saving and doing all of that, then you’ll heavenly father is dreaming bigger, sweeter things for you and he saying to you today, child, I’m not a trickster, even evil fathers, I’m not, so come and ask, come and seek, come and knock. You asked for the taking, anything. Please don’t tell me about how many unanswered prayers you have stored away. Wishing is not praying. Hoping is not praying. Slapping “thy will be done” at the end of the wishy washy prayer. Just in case God doesn’t answer it, you may say it’s his will. That is not praying, either is just a cop out. Do you remember the story Jesus told again about the man who came to bother his friend at midnight when he came to his friend? He did not have a backup plan. It was that this friend of provided the bread he wanted or nothing. What does nothing in Korea?

What is the word you use? Okay. You’re on your own for that. I was going to put that in, nothing. If his friend and didn’t give it to him. There was nothing. There was no way out. This was it, or nothing. When a child looks to the father for food, bread, daily sustenance, he’s not asking why he’s also expecting to go out and fend for himself. But friends, so often when we ask for anything of God, including daily bread, we have a backup plan, don’t we? And the least. We have a few loonies and toonies and we can go to McDonald’s or Tim Horton’s and get something off the dollar menu. Yes?

So when we come and ask out of politeness, we say our prayers, we don’t really pray. To pray is to beg, to beg in earnest to ask because this is it. If you don’t give me, there’s nowhere else to go. You have to hold onto God’s skirts and tear is bra off and say it’s you or nothing. It is either given or we don’t have any where to go. Have you ever prayed or have you said praise and is it because you don’t trust God to come through because you think he’s more wicked than earthly fathers and would trick you and give you what will snuff life out of you rather than give you life abundant. For that is why Jesus came. Your parents may give you biological life, but so he, life abundant, win some, that which makes the world wonder what’s up with you that Jesus gives? When was the last time you prayed and prayed, boldly? Brothers and sisters, when you come to pray, to ask you are home, you are not a second class citizen or an immigrant or what they call alien, who has to tippy toe around the corridors of heaven. Jesus has given you your birth certificate and a key to come and go. His very name a person was nothing but their name. If I say Simon, we know, you can take that to the bank and cash it. You can count on Jesus.

When you know all you hear is, “Enter and come and ask. Come and seek. Come get your pleasure.” And I’m not talking about the brazen sense of entitlement that we find in so much prosperity, Gospel teaching and charismatic prayer these days, claiming, aiming. No. The kind of prayer that asks for large worldly goods as a means to score points on being blessed by God.

No, as if God have was some braggadocious potentate who needs to prove his metal, and that is what is so blasphemous about prosperity Gospel. So now I’m looking like I’m overdressed for this church, looking at all of us. Any attention seeking rich fool can of give you a Bentley or buy you a jet and they get points for every time you would tell someone who bought you that jet and who gave you that Bentley,

That’s not our God, and don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying God can’t or won’t do such things if God wanted, but the how and the why, he would do such things. They matter too. God doesn’t need to prove himself to anyone and he wouldn’t do things on command or demand. At his lowest, he has a simple dandelion which you probably walked over before you walked into this sanctuary today, besting Solomon in all his finery, so does Georgio Armani, Louis Vuitton and all those other people. Have you seen a blade of grass and looked closely at it. All those fashion designers are “blah” in comparison to just what God has done with a blade of grass so God can do infinitely more and than we can see or understand so please don’t insult him by getting impressed with so called big things that he’s done. No, he’s in his nature.

Who gets impressed when you sneeze, to be involved in the daily grind of your life like daily bread, moment by moment. Changing diaper, cutting your hair, carrying you when you are tired, and if you think only moms and dads do that, you haven’t read your Bible very well. Hey, I’m the Lord your God. I saw you naked and filthy, screaming, wallowing in the blood of your mother, and I picked you up and cleaned you up and called you my own. And I am your God. O Jacob. I will carry you even into your gray hairs. Oh, please Google later and proved me right. Go one. Google it after church. I’m asking at least one of those is an easy kill. In my language we call God the “philvy nursing mother.”

Have you seen a nursing mother lately? All that gooey stuff on their shoulders. Now they put a diaper thing on there to prevent it from you know when the always smelling of things. That is our name for God. If this is God, and if this is your father, why do you say your prayers? Instead of praying, this is the God who is not too big to answer little prayers nor too low to answer big praise. The God who knows and has anticipated your need before you know it and even start to clear your throat to ask for it, but you have to know you’re coming to a father and to come with a beloved child’s attitude? There’s nothing you cannot ask for, the choice as seen in heaven has already been given for you. In a few moments, we will gather to eat the bread of heaven. So what’s on your heart as individuals and what is on your collective heart as a church. Don’t say your prayers. Pray. We are all lamenting the decline of the church. Don’t say your prayers. Pray that the Lord of the church will send his Holy Spirit upon his church and bring the revival.

That he will start the work in you and I, any all of us. Don’t say your prayers church. Use your legacy. Jesus could have left you lots of things, but this is what he left you. A key that can get you anything. Use your legacy. Pray.

Amen.

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John 15:1-8

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I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinegrower. He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit. You have already been cleansed by the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing. Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.

Bearing fruit is and how bearing fruit looks like. In today’s text we see this kind of phrase six times already, Jesus is saying that our lives should bear fruit. But what is exactly bearing fruit in our life? When I look at the way we live in terms of bearing fruit, we try to have the appearance of bearing fruit not to truly bear fruit in life you don’t pay attention to the real stuff but just the appearance how people would see me, kind of, area. In other words the desire for the abundant life, the fruitful life. But we do not know what that means or we do not put our effort to bear fruit in life in actual actuality and because of this misunderstanding of what abundant life is our life becomes poorer and poorer even though we strive to live that kind of abundant life. But it goes back backward. Over the years and throughout through our trials. We cannot understand that things from outside will not guarantee us the abundant life, material abundance will not make will not make our life truly abundant. So my friends do not risk your life to gather up more of material abundance. I came to Canada in 1991 so it has been twenty-seven years. By the way that was the year Pastor Dave was born. When we came to Toronto. We used to go to a Korean church in the neighbourhood of Weston and Lawrence so we often went to this Korean restaurant called Wooraeok. If you know this place you’ll remember that the entrance area of that restaurant, they had a showcase kind of thing window and inside they were plastic models of the dishes they had.

I was I was kind of surprised by those models of dishes because back then Korea did not have such showcase anymore. But when I visited Wooraeok and all that I saw that the plastic model of the dishes. If we just pursue the appearance of the abundant life without the content. And if we pursue to gather up the material stuff our life can be one of those model dishes. It may look OK outside but we cannot eat it, nor tasty. By definition fruit must yield to others, giving them joy and satisfaction. But if we continue to pursue only the outcome or appearance of bearing fruit or abundant life, our life will lose its life force and become lifeless; the plastic existence. Let us ask ourselves what is the reason for our economic activities? What is the purpose of our hard work and all that? We may gather up wealth and all that but can we say that such life is the abundant life and bearing much fruit in this life? We think we are very smart. But we are foolish in many ways we have this tremendous obsession that we must build our life by ourselves. We think there is no one out there to help us to build this life as a result. We force ourselves to manufacture, not building up, manufacture our life by using manipulation here and there. We want just a result or appearance of abundant life that people can say, “yes, your life is abundant.” Is that true? The unfortunate side effect of such a life attitude is that we may become successful in our effort.

Yes, we may achieve something even though we try just try to have that appearance of abundant life. But because of that, we may continue to go in the wrong direction, not truly committing ourselves for abundant life my friends the abundant life is only possible when our existence becomes abundant. Not from outside nor by the material stuff when our existence becomes abundance our life becomes abundant bearing much fruit. Whether you are young or old whether you have much less doesn’t matter when your existence become abundant. Whatever you do whoever you meet you will show the abundance in life. That is so true. Then how do we become abundant existence? How do we have this? That’s what today’s text is all about. Jesus said, “I am the vine, you are the branches” when we have this genuine relationship with Jesus who is the source of our life, our existence becomes abundant. The whole process is not manufacturing nor manipulating but organic and natural. When our existence is filled with this life force, as a result, as a natural result we will be able to bear fruit in life. People around us will enjoy that abundance from us how we say it, how we relate ourselves to others, they will sense abundance from us. This is why Jesus is asking his disciples to abide in Him multiple times in today’s text, as a matter of fact, a word or by appears eight times in today’s relatively short passage but what does exactly by this word abide mean. As I contemplated today’s text for today’s sermon, one phrase caught my eyes. That was verse 4, “Abide in me as I abide in you.”

Even though we may not fully understand the meaning of this word abide what we know is that Jesus took the initiative and he did abide in his disciples and in us already. So the message is about encouragement, promise, and confidence. With this, we will have a better understanding of what Jesus is talking about in today’s text such as in verse 3. “You have already been cleansed by the word that I have spoken to you.” It is Jesus part of abiding in his disciples. In verse 7, Jesus says, “If you abide in me and my words abide in you.” This too is Jesus encouragement and care for his disciples to hold on to his words that are already in his disciples’ hearts. Jesus is saying “Guys, as I already dwell in you. You must hold on to my promise and my words and my love.” As a matter of fact, today’s passage is part of Jesus’ farewell speech. Jesus knew he would be leaving his disciples soon and as a way to take care of his disciples, Jesus left this passage to encourage his disciples. Jesus loved his disciples so much and we can see she loved them until the end. He’ll be gone. He’ll be gone soon. But don’t worry I am in you. I will be with you all the time. When Jesus said I am the vine and you are the branches. What he meant was we are one, so hold onto my words the life giving words that are ready in you. Do not be afraid. Do not look for anything else but listen carefully to the words that I have already spoken to you.

We now understand that the word abide is not a mechanical kind of process but it is a Jesus commitment for his disciples and his love for them. They are one and no one can separate them from each other. We all desire to live abundant life then become the abundant existence first, choose Jesus and hold on to Jesus words that are already in you. When we have such abiding relationship with Jesus our existence will be filled with life force and we will be able to bear fruit in life. And remember this, may our choosing be genuine and authentic. We cannot choose Jesus as if she’s one of our many other choices. We cannot come to him with a divided heart. Remember what the prophet Jeremiah had to say to the Israelites a long time ago. He said. “For my people have committed two evils they have forsaken me, the fountain of living water and dug out cisterns for themselves cracked cisterns that can can hold no water.” When we abide in Jesus it is our confession that Jesus is the only one. As Jesus showed his commitment and love for us we too show our commitment and love for him. Only then we will be able to become abundant in many ways. That life giving force will make our eyes open. See things differently. Have more appreciation of each other. And our commitment for life in a general sense will become deep and genuine. I think there is abundant life itself.

Reverend In Kee Kim, began the spiritual movement called Inner Voice last year on the first day of June, it’s been already one year and I can see a change transformation in me as well as others because of this Inner Voice Movement. It is like drizzle but we are all soaked into the water of life giving words. The beauty of this spiritual discipline is that when we try to listen to the voice of God from the core of our existence you know what will happen. We will be able to hear our own voice our own voice about this life, about my life personal life, my life purpose calling and when we be able to listen to the more and more; passion is springing up from from within. And we will pursue that direction. Give ourselves all into that, that is abundant life isn’t it. So there is a beauty in that spiritual discipline not only just listening to God’s words but take it down, take it down deeply that you will be able to hear your own authentic voice calling to yourself. I believe this is what abundant life is all about being able to hear your voice in your hearts. And that is the result of listening to God’s words from our hearts. From this everything will change, everything will be different. A spiritual leader Thomas Martin once said this, “You cannot tell me who I am and I cannot tell you who you are if you do not know your own identity. Who is going to identify you? Others can give you a name or a number that they can never tell you who you really are. That is something you yourself can only discover from within.” Being able to hear your voice from your hearts. It’s the result of abiding in Jesus and holding onto his words and the words will open our eyes heal our souls and mend our relationships.

The words will give us insights or understanding of life and these are the characteristics of the abundant life. That is what verse 7 means. If you’re abide in me and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish and it will be done for you. It is not that we will have magical power in in our prayers, no, but our prayers will become like Jesus. Jesus concerned will become our concern. And Jesus dreams for this world become our dream for the world. When that happens our God will not take care of it. As you know the north and south leaders of Korea had a meeting in Panmunjom yesterday or so. When I watched that, I was so glad that now we can have this hope of living in peace together. I believe that’s what our Lord wants to see happening in the Korean Peninsula. When we abide in Jesus and hold on to his words closer to our hearts. Jesus prayer will become our prayers praying for the peace in the world, not only that God will fill our hearts with a new vision for the world and will help us to commit ourselves to the things that are concerning to God’s glory. We had mission dinner as Peter shared last night and I thank God for another great year. Everything was abundant. The food, the performances, the donations and the volunteers. When everyone is abiding in Jesus we will become one connecting to each other through Jesus. That is the secret of community.

When we abide in Jesus more and more have a genuine relationship with Jesus we as a community is forming and we feel that we are one in that sense there is a spiritual secret. It is my blessing to see that happening in our church, I thank God for that. Next year, you got to purchase the tickets sooner. Right. Its sold out in two or three weeks. The food was great this is a spiritual blessing and this is how our God works in us. No other places in the world can we experience such abundance. It is the result of our members who are taking gods words seriously meaning with reverence and joy. What a blessed community we have. The funds we raised from mission dinner will be used majorly for the children in Madagascar. As you may know, a few classrooms were damaged by the cyclone in January this year. We want to restore their hope. We want to share our abundance with them. Thats why we served in each our own way at mission dinner. If we believe in Jesus and if we love Jesus we are called to be his disciples to become the channel of God’s abundance for this world. My dear friends Jesus abides in us with his words to bless our existence. Let us hold on to his words and let the life giving words enrich our existence so that we become the channel of God’s abundance for this broken world. That is the way we are fulfilling our vision. That we as a church stands for the weak and vulnerable. Make God bless you. And may you become faithful disciples of Jesus Christ.

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Colossians 1:15-20

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers all things have been created through him and for him. He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together. He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross.

I believed that what we need in this world at this moment in peace. That is what we need the most more than anything else. We need peace. When we look around, we see so many conflicts, violence, and a lot of hurt and pain. What we need is peace in this world. The world that Isaiah dreamt about is the world that I also dream about. This is what Isaiah said. “The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with a kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together and the little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze, their young shall lie down together and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp and the weaned child shall put his hands on the adder’s den. Then they will not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.”

How beautiful. That was, the world that Isaiah dreamt about, and that is the world that I also dream about. Some of you may think that. Oh, that’s unrealistic. That’s impossible. But I still believe that that kind of world is possible. If it is not possible out there in the world, maybe at least in this congregation or in this community. I like to see that kind of world where people live together in peace and harmony. When you look at the scripture very carefully, it is the image of the powerful letting go of their power like lions and wolf and all of these they let go of the power to be in a relationship with the other, with the others. The powerful did do not use their power to control others, dictate others or conquer others, but the let go of their power to be one with others.

The world we live in is very different from this image. We are hurt, in much pain and have much sorrow. Many relationships are broken and people are in deep pain. You know, human beings are very smart. Sometimes I’m totally amazed how smart we human beings are, not me but human beings. They are so smart. I mean, how could they think of going to the Moon? Moon? You look at it, he enjoys the beauty of it. You write poems maybe and you write songs about it, but think about going there and actually, they went there. How smart, how smart can you get? And they built invented this airplane. Whenever I look at the airplane, it’s a miracle to me. How did they invent that? And so they go from one country to another country before we just walked around and did the build this gigantic machine to carry so many people. Now he’s almost done that. They’ll be cars driving around without drivers. Can you imagine the car driving without drivers? I think we human beings are really, really smart, but these smart human beings don’t seem to be wise enough to live in peace. That’s why I wonder why these smart human beings don’t know the basic of ABC, of how to live together in peace and harmony. And I realized that being smart and being wise are two different things and being smart doesn’t bring about peace. Being smart is connected with the power. Being wise is connected with love. It’s almost like a magnet when there is smartness, intelligence, always connect, it gets attached to the power and wisdom is attached to love.

Two totally different things. Being smart and being wise are two totally different things. To live in peace. What we need is not being smart, but being wise. To be smart, either you’re born with it or you acquire that from the world. But I believe that the wisdom comes from God. The source is different. When you have a heart of love, only then you’ll have wisdom. Doesn’t matter how smart you are. If you don’t have a heart of love, then there is no wisdom possible. To those who have a heart of love. God pours that wisdom. But for those who don’t have a heart of love, God cannot give that wisdom.

We have a family with twins. Just born. She has a little girl and now three children. She’s having such a hard time, you know, a postpartum and all this stuff. She’s going through so much and our women, they take turns and they spend a few hours, several hours there, a, sometimes 10 to six, sometimes three hours, four hours. They just go there and talk to her. And then a son sometimes help her out. And where did that get was wisdom? I call that wisdom, that comes from the heart of love. I share that with my Bible Study Group on Friday, a Friday morning, I have a Bible study, mostly women. And then they come from different churches, not necessarily all from our church, but that they come from different churches and they all say, “that is an ideal church.”

It was then, right there when the thought hit me. I call that wisdom. Wisdom comes from love. When you’re considerate of others, you become wise. Jesus’ cross was the wisdom. If Jesus were just smart, I think he was the smartest man in the world, by the way, because of all the things that he said, I think that he’s the smartest man in the world, but if he were only smart, he would have never taken up the cross. No. If you’re just smart, he would have never taken up the cross. The sins Jesus had the wisdom. He took up the cross for us and, and that is the wisdom. The smartest man in the world took up the cross. That is the wisdom. That’s why St Paul said this, for the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing. I think to those who are smart, you can even replace that because he just talked about another wisdom and that foolishness. In that same chapter, the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God to smart people. The cross is foolishness, but to the wise people to cross is God’s power and that is a power that brings peace and reconciliation.

That was all that Paul said in today’s scripture passage and through him, God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross. I struggled all day with this passage through the blood of his cross peace through the blood of his cross. What does that mean? And I realized that that cross was the wisdom and through that wisdom, peace is possible. There are a lot of smart people in the world, but I see very few wise people. No wonder it is so hard to see true peace in this world. This world is getting smarter and smarter. As the years go by. We have so much information compared to 20 years ago, 30 years ago, we know so much. We have so much. We’re so much more educated than ever before. We are smart. Within 10 years, I don’t know what this technology will surprise us. We don’t even know within 10 years maybe something you cannot even imagine they will come up with, but at the same time you can become more foolish and we may not know what they will do to the world they live.

I don’t know what kind of violence and domination this new technology may bring about including AI and all this stuff. To coexist in peace. What we need is wisdom, not intelligence. We have a lot of intelligent people. We have a lot of smart people. They don’t inspire me anymore. We need wise people. This world needs wise people. If we doubt each other, put up a guard against each other and try to control each other all the time, we’ll all be destroyed.

With power, no peace is possible. Peace is possible only through love. What binds us together is the wisdom that comes from love. Today’s Earth Day, Miyang shared very eloquently about the situation, the current situation. We human beings with a power, we often, we exploit the nature. Nature is a most beautiful gift God has ever given us. He created this earth and the trees and birds and he painted it with the beautiful colours and green and the red and all this stuff. We enjoy life. If we destroy because of our greed, then, how can we enjoy our life? We need to be just conscious of what we’re doing. We need peace with nature. Nature is not there for you to exploit and conquer. Nature is there for you to take care of, to enjoy, but also take care of and protect.

Human intelligence will turn into power. Look around you. All the smart people have all the power, but that power turns into a desire to conquer. Don’t take that route. Don’t take that route. The end is a disaster. From that desire. We see domination and violence. Last 100 years. The Aboriginal children were taken away from their parents when they’re really little. They didn’t know anything about the world. They just took them away from their parents miles and miles away, and they had to live in a foreign place called residential school and there many children, powerless children were abused sexually, physically, emotionally by the powerful people. People of the power, oppress them in the name of inculturation, of the uncivilized, in the process, they destroy the soul and the spirit of these innocent children. Since the wisdom comes from love, it always seeks justice. It always stands on the side of the weak and vulnerable, not with the strong. Wisdom always takes take sides on the weak and vulnerable. True reconciliation is possible when there is justice when there is true reconciliation, true peace is possible. Human intelligence is often used for the personal benefit, but the wisdom has the cross built within it and that always seeks the benefit of others. That’s what wisdom is. Intelligence always, you seek for your own good, but wisdom always seeks the benefit of other people.

That’s what wisdom is. The wisdom not only comes from love but also comes from the fullness. When you’re with the spirit, then wisdom comes, but when you’re filled with greed, what you get is an emptiness within you. When you have emptiness, you want to fill yourself with self-needs. That’s why needy people always have to do something to fill or fulfill them, but people who are filled with the fullness of God, they don’t need to be obsessed with their personal needs anymore so they can look around and they can see other people’s needs rather than their own needs, so wisdom comes from that fullness of God. Our human civilization should be built on the wisdom. Then that civilization can be a great civilization. A civilization where people can thrive and live in peaceful harmony. Yesterday I had an interview with a Taiwanese second generation as if we were talking well, this and that. In the end, both of us talked about peace and harmony in this world about ethnic ecosystems and all of that, and we had a great time together. That’s what we need, to be connected with each other.

Our community should be built on the wisdom. That’s why St Paul kept emphasizing on the wisdom and insight to bring about reconciliation, peace, and harmony. This is what he said, “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of His grace that he lavished on us with all wisdom and insight he has made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time together of all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.” He understood that from the true wisdom of all things heaven and on earth will be gathered up in harmony and fullness. Just a few months ago, not even a few months ago, I was really worried about the Korean Peninsula when Kim Jung Un and Trump were back and forth with this nasty words and all that. I mean, they have nuclear weapons and they’re threatening with each other in the midst of it. How about the people? Innocent powerless people. Now finally they are talking about talking about having a conversation together. The community that is built on wisdom is viable. A family that is built on the wisdom is viable. The country that is built on wisdom is viable.

In that community, there will be true joy and a deep sense of respect and warm love. Let us build this community with wisdom that comes from God. Be filled with the spirit. When you’re filled with the spirit, you’ll become a bigger person. When you’re a bigger person than you can embrace other people’s differences and weaknesses. You can let go of your power and then embrace and welcome another person. In that fullness, all our differences will be, will not be the reason to fight, but the reason to celebrate. The wisdom that brings about peace and peace, that is what we need in this world.

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Acts 5:34-42

{Transcript}

There were two big pillars of Jewish thought. These two schools actually govern the thought of Jewish people during Jesus’ time and before Jesus’ time and one was the school of Hillel and the other was the school of Shammai. The school of Hillel, was a more open and progressive, but the school of Shammai was conservative and devoted. Both are good schools, but they’re thinking or a different. Gamaliel in today’s scripture was from the school of Hillel. Actually, as a matter of fact, his grandfather was a Hillel, so he was very much influenced by Hillel’s thought and, you know, very famous disciple of Gamaliel. And that is St. Paul that we know very well. So St. Paul was also from the school of Hillel.

Gamaliel was so respected by the people during that time. And when Gamaliel passed away, the people said the spirit of the law is deceased, like deceased, like disappeared now. That was the light of the interpretation of the law is gone. That much Gamaliel was very much respected. So they gave him the name Rabban and it’s kind of glorious teacher kind of idea. As you read today’s passage, you see Gamaliel speaking on behalf of the disciples. He was very humble and open to the new ideas because they are just new ideas, let us not reject them, let us be open and see what they have to say. That was Gamaliel’s attitude and that is very much spirit of Hillel school. The Hillel School had that kind of attitude, progressive and open attitude, and what Gamaliel did was very much the spirit of Hillel.

And so he said, let them be alone. A high priest and the temple police tried to kill Jesus’ disciples. But as we reflected last week, when they killed Jesus, they would not have left the disciples alone. They would have wanted to kill them movement altogether. So we see the continuation of that atmosphere, but somehow the disciples changed, but the Jewish authorities tried to kill the disciples. This is what they said when they heard this, they heard that these people were preaching Jesus, they were in enraged and wanted to kill him. I mean they thought that by killing Jesus, everything was over, but still, they were talking about Jesus continuously. So they were kind of annoyed by the disciples. So they wanted to kill them off. That’s the kind of atmosphere.

But Gamaliel, who was very much respected. He stood up and he told the disciples to go outside, and there for a short time. And then he addressed the Jewish authorities. At that time it was a St. Hadrian. St. Hadrian was the most powerful kind of group, a political group or religious group. At that time politics and religion were not separate. So they made all the decision in Sanhedrin, he was very much respected. And he told he addressed the kind of parliament. He addressed the St. Hadrian. This is what he said, “fellow Israelites, consider carefully what you propose to do to these men. So in the present case, I tell you, keep away from these men and let them alone.” Just before that, he talked about Theudas and the Judas and then he said, “so in that, in this present case, I tell you, keep away from these men and let them alone. Because if this plan or this undertaking is of human origin, it will fail. But if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them. In that case, you may be even be found fighting against God.” I think St. Gamaliel, believed that this is a movement of human origin. That’s why he gave the example of Theudas and Judas, you know, they all had their leaders and they are 400 people followed it, but the leaders were killed and the whole movement that was killed. He gave two examples of that. And in this one too, you know, leaders died. So this movement is going to go die too. So don’t worry too much about it. Just leave them alone. Let them alone. There was Gamaliel’s attitude I believe, but without realizing it, he prophesied about the movement of the Christian movement, about Christian movement. He prophesied. He confirmed that this is God’s movement. No one could stop. He said that no one can stop this movement if it is of God’s origin. I mean, that’s not what he meant to say, but somehow without realizing it, he prophesied and he confirmed that Jesus movement and Christian movement was of God’s origin.

So be careful with what you say. Sometimes it comes true without realizing. You may say it’s just anything but you may come true. I mean, he said he said this thing without really realizing it, but somehow that, that `came true and he said, if that is from God, you try to stop it, then you are against God.

But the history. So there’s an irony in history, our human history is so ironical because his own disciple St. Paul tried to stop this movement. That’s why he was going to Damascus. On the road to Damascus, he met the risen Christ, but the reason he went to Damascus was to kill off this movement. To stop this movement, but on the road to Damascus, he met the risen Lord and he realized that all the things he did all along, he thought that he was working for God, but he was working against God. His own disciple, Gamaliel’s own disciple, did the thing, and then St Paul, he established a foundation of Christian thought. Jesus preached a lot, but a lot of people say that without St. Paul, there would not have been Christianity because he gave all the contents and substance of Christian beliefs about the law, about faith, about salvation, about forgiveness, everything. He just made all that and that was Gamaliel’s disciple.

God used the example of Gamaliel to be the person to establish the foundation of the Christian belief system. Isn’t it amazing how God works? We don’t know how God works. I mean the disciples sitting there hearing Gamaliel, they would not have even imagined that his own disciple would be the person who established the foundation of Christian belief. They would not have even imagined it. God’s work is so awesome. Filled with awe and mysterious. It is not in our control. We don’t know exactly what the outcome will be. Once Jesus told Nicodemus that you have to be born again, and then he said that this very strange thing, this is what he said, the wind blows where he chooses and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes to. I mean you hear the sound of the wind, you know that there is some kind of God’s movement, but you don’t know exactly where it comes from and where it’s going to. What the result may be. You don’t know. What God does in our lives. We don’t know exactly where this takes us to. I believe that God works in your life every single person’s life, but we don’t leave exactly what that will end up with. We don’t know.

It is very different from the life that we live. We live in this day and age. We live in a very well structured system and live by that tight schedule that is set for us. We feel comfortable when everything is in our control and we know exactly what the outcome will be of what we are doing. Then we feel comfortable with everything turns out exactly as I planned. Then we say that: it’s a good life. We don’t really know whether it’s a good life or not, but it just turned out to be exactly as I scheduled as I planned. Is that good life necessarily? When things go out of control is not a good life. Who are you to say that? Well, we are living. We are so comfortable with a life that is under our control. In our own grip and then that’s what we pursue continuously. That’s what I St. Paul tried to kill off this movement because they are distributing the order and also same as the Jewish authorities. Do they are? They are disturbing the order of the society they have. They have to go to keep this good structure society, but today, disciples were so different.

This is what his disciples said. “As they left the council, they rejoiced that there were considered worthy to suffer this honour for the sake of the Name.” I mean disciples, I don’t think they planned to be arrested. Their plan was the experience of God’s power that he proclaimed the news and the people will receive the good news and that they will convert and all that, and then they will do God’s work, but they were arrested. That was not their plan, but that’s okay. And they were beaten up and they even said, “I’m honoured to be beaten up. I’m honoured to suffer.” I mean the way they take their life situation is so different. Nothing. Life doesn’t have to happen in the way they want it. Whatever it happens to us, they were happy. They rejoiced. They went out, they were whipped and they went out rejoicing and they kept doing what they were doing. Oh, I see very strong, confident people here.

What did they have? They’re very different from people that we saw last week. They were behind the closed door. They were trembling with fear. Last week we saw that and, but today I see two people standing tall. I mean not to people, but the disciples standing tall and very confident. Why? Because they believe that God’s movement, no one can stop. What we are doing is God’s movement and no one can stop this movement, that confidence they had. Just before this passage, they were arrested. As soon as they were arrested, Peter and the disciples stood tall and they were very confident that, that this is what they said, but Peter and the apostles answered, “we must obey God rather than any human authority.” I mean they could be killed it right there, but they didn’t care. I’d rather listen to God, than the human authority, because you cannot stop God’s movement. I like that confidence. The confidence of life comes from that belief that God’s movement no one can stop. Your confidence in life doesn’t come from your ability, your intelligence, or how powerful you are, how capable you are. No, real confidence in life comes from the belief that your life is in Garson and no one can stop you from doing God’s work.

There were bold. They were confident they were strong. No, there are times when things don’t work out as well. Sometimes we face problems that overwhelm us and our situations are sometimes hopeless and sometimes we feel that I cannot do any, anything further because all my strength is drained and gone. I have no power.

Even a yesterday, just a whole day I was kind of looking at the weather at CP 24 and. Oh, freezing rain. Wait, when does it start? Right at 8:00. Oh Gosh, 8 o’clock? That’s when our KSM members started coming to church. I hope that you know, there are a lot of elderly people I hope that they don’t get into an accident and all that. And after it’s going to be a small service. And then I checked the email and then I found out that Josh can’t make it and okay, this is Jonathan is going to Korea. So who’s gonna lead the praise? And we asked the KSM members too. So I called Chung moksanin to discuss it, to arrange and all. Sometimes life is out of control. It doesn’t happen as we wish, but a lot of people, when that happens, that’s when they become weak and they lose confidence in life. I hope that you don’t do that. That’s when you should realize that God’s will is bigger than ours. God’s power is stronger than ours and God’s wisdom is deeper than ours.

I want you to repeat after me: “God’s will is bigger than ours. God’s power is stronger than ours. God’s wisdom is deeper than ours.” When everything goes wrong, that’s what you need to believe. God’s movement you can never stop. That was what Isaiah realized. This is what he said. “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways says the Lord, for as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” That’s what Isaiah realized.

What we need to do is to try our best to follow God’s will and do our best. This all we can do and we have to do. Beyond that, you cannot do anything, you try to find God’s will as much as possible and do your best. Don’t worry and don’t focus too much on the result. When you focus too much on the result, then sometimes you get influenced by human ways. You use your brain to change the course, to force the situations. Sometimes when you force the situations, it may look good for a while, but in the long run, it may lead you astray. Nothing to do with God’s will then you’ll be against God. So instead of focusing too much on the result, trying to find your gospel as much as possible and do your best.

What we need is a confidence and belief that God’s will shall be done. Right after Isaiah says, God’s thoughts are higher than our thoughts and all that. This is what he says, “for as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there until they have water, the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth. It shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose and succeed in the thing for which I sent it.” I mean God’s word will be done. God’s will be done. This is what God is saying. Jesus followed God’s will and that’s why he forgave people. He loved people and he taught them God’s truth, but unfortunately, people did not receive Jesus’ teaching, people did not receive Jesus’ forgiveness and love the constantly challenged Jesus and ultimately they kill Jesus on the Cross. They crucified him. In the meanwhile, Jesus could have changed his method. Okay, this doesn’t work. Let’s do this. Let’s do that as something else, maybe we do. It doesn’t matter, but Jesus didn’t do that. Jesus just carried the cross the ultimate end was carrying the cross.

God brought resurrection through the cross. The most ineffective way, maybe. Maybe the stupidest thing or most foolish thing to do. That was a cross, and yet that through that cross resurrection was possible. I was thinking the disciples must’ve been really frustrated following Jesus and you always talk about love, love, love. when everybody’s hating you, everybody’s going against you. Do something different. I think the disciples could have been very frustrated. That’s why Judas betrayed him. Hey, this guy, no hope, no use. Let’s do something else. That’s why he betrayed Jesus, but Jesus kept on going.

But now, the disciples realized that God’s movement cannot stop. They finally realized only through that cross, the resurrection was possible and the cross was not necessarily the foolishness. They realize. Finally, they learned, there is God’s way. We don’t know the way. You want to serve God. Serve with faith, don’t serve God with your brain. God’s work is too deep, too profound. Do you want to serve God? Serve with faith, that God’s movement cannot stop. The disciples would not have imagined while Gamaliel that his disciple who make the foundation of the Christian belief system. God is still working with within us. Live your life with confidence, live with joy. Don’t give up. Be always humble. Be always humble and live your life with faith. In the end, it will see the amazing result of your life. The process may look foolish, but the end will be in God’s hand.

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John 20:19-23

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Disciples Hid

Fear is a funny thing. It is real and it’s very concrete in a way. Once fear takes a grip on us, it paralyzes us. And also in fear, we feel like we’re very small and powerless.

And also when the fear attacks us, often we locked the door and we want to be behind the closed door. Fear does many strange things in our lives. All kinds of things it does today. You see a group of people who are completely paralyzed by the fear. They were the disciples of Jesus Christ. So let us look at when it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met, were locked for fear of the Jews. I mean physically, literally that happened. But also I think it has a symbolic kind of message there. They were so scared. They lock all the doors and they kind of hid behind the closed doors. I mean, after Jesus died to think the Jewish rulers would have just left him alone. I don’t think so.

Fear is Gone

They would have looked for other disciples who were part of that movement which caused so much trouble for them. They wanted to arrest them. If they could, they would have killed them. So they just wanted to get rid of the seed of that movement altogether. That’s why they were looking hard for these disciples and that’s why the disciples were really, really scared. But the risen Lord did not leave them alone behind a closed door, that’s what our risen Lord does, when we are behind a closed door, our risen Lord does not leave us alone there. So the risen Lord came to them, and this is what he says when it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met, were locked for fear of the Jews. Jesus came and stood among them among them and said, peace be with you.

He came to the disciples to lift them up from fear and to liberate them to free them from fear. And then the way he liberated them from fear was to give them the peace. The peace was a real thing. That peace was given to them so that they were able to overcome their own fear. I was thinking about fear and peace. Both are very concrete. They both affect our lives, but they are on two opposite poles. I can say a radical contrast between these two if I use some kind of metaphor or imagery. When I think about fear, I feel like very. It’s like a storm and furious sea. The waves high and no control. There’s no anchor. You’re just all over the place, all of the map when you’re in fear or this storm and wind and you see that. But when I think about peace, it’s like a calm lake or even 100 meters below the surface of the ocean, which is a very chaotic underneath of 100 meters down there is peaceful, quiet. Fearful heart is like you’re all over the place. You have no centre. You’re very anxious and you worry a lot but peaceful heart is almost like power, is a confidence that you are ready to handle your problems, that you have this inner quiet confidence that you can deal with your challenges of life

Come Out

It’s unshakeness. Nothing can shake you, but fear. You’re just shaking all over the place. The risen Lord gave the disciples this peace, it was very different from what they felt at that time, and I had this image, imagery, that peace Jesus gave kind of entered into them and swallowed up the fear, that kind of image I got. Jesus gave him the peace and peace entered into our soul and swallowed up our fear.

And then Jesus sent them out. Don’t stay there behind the closed door. Go out. That’s what Jesus said. Jesus said to them, again, peace be with you as the father has sent me, so I send you, don’t stay here. I’m going to send you. You gotta go out and you got to live what you’re supposed to do. Doing what you’re supposed to do. Don’t just stay behind. Today’s story is almost like is a turning point for disciples. Until then, they really did not know Jesus until then did they were people or fear, but after that they were radically different people. They went out and live with confidence. They locked the door tight, but no door. Doesn’t matter how tightly they lock it cannot keep the risen Lord from coming in, Jesus broke through their tightly closed hearts and entered into the depths of their soul and chased out the fear by giving them peace. I realize a piece is more powerful than fear. Once we have peace, that peace will be able to chase out. I mean once we have peace, the peace will be able to chase out the fear. I believe the peace is more powerful than fear, so the personal who lives with peace is more powerful, can live more powerfully than people who live with fear.

Fear in Life

When we have fear, we close our heart. We don’t let anyone come. No matter how long and painfully maybe we think that that is the safest thing to do. They just closed their heart. They don’t let anybody come in. They get locked up.

We have this one week of an examination of the ministers candidate drink theological school. They have to go through this one week process and there were examiners who examine all of these students. And a few times I went to that conference as an examiner and a few people I rejected there. The reason that I rejected them was after one week I told my other counsellors, I don’t know them, I talked with him. I interviewed them. I don’t know who that person is. I don’t get a sense of who that person is because that person is so locked up. He or she doesn’t let anyone come in. You may be safe behind the closed door, but you will not have freedom. You shall know the fear and the fear show make you safe. This is not a scripture verse. This is what I wrote. True, but Jesus did not teach that. Jesus taught this. You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free. So decide. Do you want safety or do you want freedom? Fear may give you safety, but only the truth will give you the freedom. People who are in fear always look for safety. They always choose the safest way, but the people of resurrection have peace of Christ and confidence they can come out of the closet, come out of the closed door. Because they have confidence, they can be creative. Because they have confidence, they believe that the uncertainty of the future is not something that they should fear or avoid at all costs, but to embrace it because they trust the promise of God.

The promise of God is stronger than the uncertainty of the future. People who are in fear will look at everything in life with a negative attitude. They see life as an enemy to win and defeat, but the people of the resurrection do not see their life as an enemy. They see it as an opportunity. The way you look at life is different depending on what you have. If you have fear, you will look at life as an enemy. If you have peace, you will look at life as an opportunity. People in fear also see other people as enemies. They guard themselves against them. They cannot open their hearts to them because they’re too scared to be hurt and their relationship relationships become very difficult. They cannot relate to people.

Fear and Forgiveness

The risen Lord brought the disciples out of the closed door. Jesus made them the people of resurrection and gave them the power and authority. This is a first time Jesus met the disciples after he was risen. First time he told something, and then this is the last time he would have said this. In other words, the most important things that they were supposed to do. Jesus told him into the story. This is what you gotta do. This is how you’re going to live your life. Before he was taken up, ascended into heaven. This is what he left with them and then he gave them the power and authority, and what is that? Verse 23. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them. If you retain the sins of any, they are retained. This is a power and authority. Jesus left the disciples width. This is what we are supposed to do as the people of resurrection, as the disciples of Jesus Christ.

To forgive somebody is the most difficult thing in the world and that Jesus left us to do that, but you know how hard it is to forgive anybody?

When we are in fear, we can never forgive anyone. Forgiveness is not possible in fear. In fear, you can only see hatred, condemnation, anger and division. To forgive others and to to embrace their faults and weaknesses. You need power and I believe that power is the power of resurrection. That power is the power of the spirit that frees us, humanly is impossible, but only through the power of the spirit we can do that. Last Wednesday was the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. He fought for the black people in US. He fought for the weak and the vulnerable people who are victims of racism, but he never fought the fight with hatred.

He always fought the fight with the attitude of forgiveness. This is what he said, forgiveness is not an occasional act. It is a constant attitude. That’s how he thought the racism in US, and this is also what he said, darkness cannot drive out darkness. Only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hatred. Only love can do that. He fought the fight as a person of resurrection. He didn’t build the walls. He didn’t fight in the closed door. He came out to the light and fought it with love and forgiveness and that’s the only way and God gave that ministry to us. People of resurrection should go out and live our life of forgiveness. That’s our portion. God did not tell us to go and condemn and judge others. That’s not our portion. God told us to go out and forgive. Do the ministry of forgiveness. Fear goes to anger, anger goes to violence. That’s what we see in the world around us every day, but God called us to go out and do the ministry of forgiveness. Let us come out of the close door and enjoy the freedom. The freedom is the freedom to forgive. That is what the people resurrection should do.

The disciples did that. As a matter of fact, they gave their life away. Just to do the ministry of forgiveness, are there people that you need to forgive or do you need forgiveness yourself so that you can come out of that fear and live a life of freedom.

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1 Corinthians 15:1-11

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Vitality

Easter is about change and hope. With Christ has risen and he gave us a change and hope, you all know, St Paul, a very famous Christian theologian who probably defined what Christianity is all about. And St Paul, his main theology was around resurrection. His, the core of his theology was on the resurrection. So when you read his writings, everything is surrounded around by resurrection. Why? Because he changed after he met the risen Christ. After he experienced the power of the risen Christ, the power of Resurrection, he became a changed person. And as a changed person, he wrote all his writing. Probably more than half of the New Testament is written by St Paul before he met the risen Lord, he basically followed what everybody else was doing and he was doing pretty well. He was going really well with his life, but he didn’t know the essence of life that is filled with vitality. He didn’t have that.

He did very well, but he didn’t have a life that is filled with vitality. Once he changed, he saw what he was missing and he saw that life was missing in my life and he started pursuing life. His eyes were open and he started seeing everything so differently and a radically new way. That’s why he got so many insights, almost like life wisdom and insight were poured out upon him. When he changed and when he started seeing everything differently, all the wisdom and insights about life, about himself and about God, he had all that. After he met the risen Lord, that’s why he was able to write more than half of the New Testament. He experienced the power of the risen Lord. God, who was dead to Paul, came alive. In other words, God became resurrected within Paul. Paul emphasizes today the risen Christ appeared to many people. This is what he said and that he was buried and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures and that he appeared to Cephas, that’s Peter, then to the 12. Then he appeared to more than 500 brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom are still alive though some have died. Then he appeared to James then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to someone untimely born, he appeared also to me.

Change came from risen Lord

He emphasizes the appearance of the risen Lord. Why did he emphasize that so much? And as I reflect on it, it was not really appearance that Paul emphasized. He emphasized on the change, this appearance made in these people. That’s why you said even to me, untimely born even to me, he appeared and he changed me and he said, I am who I am by God’s grace. And not only be me but all these people that risen Lord appeared and they, every single one of them changed. That was his focus and emphasis, not just appearance of the risen Lord but the what the appearance did to the people. The real evidence of resurrection is of witnesses. They changed so much after meeting Jesus Christ. We may not have physical evidence, but we have a lot of witnesses. Look at disciples. If you know the scripture, you know disciples in the scripture very well. Jesus always told them, how foolish are you? How long do I have to stay with you? While the disciples were with Jesus, they didn’t have any idea of what they’re hearing. They didn’t understand what Jesus was saying.

Every time they misunderstood what Jesus was saying, they did not even have great faith either. That’s why they were always scolded by Jesus, but after they met the risen Lord, they have changed so much. They experienced the power of resurrection and from then on they didn’t care whether they will be persecuted or not. They went out and proclaim the message of the risen Christ. They didn’t care about their own life, own death. They cared about the message that they receive. The disciples completely changed after the risen Lord. If Jesus just died, then they would have fabricated that and then give their lives for the phony thing? For the lie?

Because they have changed after meeting the risen Lord, they became different people. Resurrection is not a theory. Resurrection is the power, power to change. When you approach the resurrection only as a theory, you’ll never understand why the resurrection is all about. You cannot open the secret of the reality of the resurrection. But once you experience the power that comes from the risen Lord, then you’ll understand the power of resurrection. They all experienced that power of resurrection and they changed and they proclaimed the message of resurrection to others.

Even now, the risen Christ is changing us, the power of resurrection gives us hope that defeats the despair. It gives us the courage that defeats fear. It gives us peace and reconciliation that defeats the division and hatred it gives us life that defeats the power of death. The evidence of resurrection is not out there. It is within you. When you have the risen Christ within you, you will bear the fruit of the resurrection and that fruit is evidence of the resurrection. The risen Christ is with us today and we still celebrate the life he gave to us.

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Isaiah 50:4-9a

Before the worship, we briefly meditate on what we’re, what attitude, what worship is, and what attitude we should have, and then what kind of heart does God really desire from us? I think the heart that God receives from us is a broken heart, brokenness. Humble brokenness God will never despise. God will see that broken heart with mercy and grace and that is the part that gives true worship to God. Today, I’d like you to picture this particular verse, verse six. I gave my back to those who struck me and my cheeks to those who pulled out the beard. I did not hide my face from the insult and spitting. I want you to look at that scripture passage and then think about it. If you put yourself into it, how would you feel? It is a troubling picture in a way. I see a totally helpless victim and we don’t like this kind of picture. If people strike us, we strike back so that they will never strike us again. If people insult us and spit at us, we will not just take; we will retaliate. We believe that that is the right thing to do, but is there anything that we can learn from what we just read?

When you look at the picture very carefully, you will be able to see what Jesus went through. That was exactly what Jesus went through. That is what the cross it looks like. Is there anything that we can learn from the cross or there’s nothing to learn from the cross? The Cross can be very dangerous in a certain sense. When people hit us, abuse us, and insult us, they destroy our self esteem, dignity and self worth. Our core self is attacked. That’s why it is painful. That’s why we people react and retaliate because they want to protect that inner self, the core self that holds us together. Otherwise, we’ll collapse. I find people very difficult. That is the most difficult thing to deal with. The people or the most difficult thing to deal with. I mean all the hard work and that’s fine, but people are very difficult to deal with. People can be selfish and self centered and people are very unpredictable. One day they are very good, but the next day they are totally different. Are they the same person? We wonder. People give us the greatest joy, but at the same time, they give us the deepest pain.

Because of people we laugh, but also because of the people we cry. People are difficult to deal with and also people can be quite cruel at times. When their hearts are closed, they can be quite cruel. When we look at the way they killed Jesus. We can see how cruel human beings can be. From human cruelty, even God’s son was not spared. To this image shows us the cruel image of human beings. They struck, pulled out the beard, spat and insulted. I once witnessed on the street to a person actually beating another person. You ask the cruellest scene where the face he punched and the other guy fell down on the street and he went and then kept punching at him. When I saw that, I was so disturbed by that scene. That’s a cruelty. Not only are our people cruel, but also they’re very ignorant. They don’t know what they’re doing often. They don’t even know how much they hurt other people. That’s why Jesus on the cross said, Lord, they do not know what they’re doing, but Jesus asked for God’s forgiveness for them.

That’s a miracle. That’s amazing! and he’s on the cross. They were nailing him on the cross and then Jesus was thinking, they don’t know what they’re doing. Forgive them. That’s the very hard thing to do. How nice it will be if he can be a warm and loving presence to people around us, how nice it will be if you can give them joy and hope.

How nice that will be. If my presence can give some joy and hope to other people, that’s a wonderful thing to do, to be, but we’re not always, we know that. Many times we hurt others; cause pain in them and make them angry, especially to those near us around us and that pain is so deep that is hard to overcome. That’s why we need to always humbly discipline ourselves so that we know what to say and what not to say and be always considerate and show kindness to whoever we meet and that is a right thing to do as a human being to those people who are strangers, we need to be considerate and kind. We should not say hurtful things about people. Even though we try so hard still, we make mistakes and hurt others unconsciously, and how much more will hurt other people if we live mindlessly? We just act out our emotion. How much we will hurt other people. Even if we discipline ourselves is so hard not to hurt other people, but if you just behave like you feel like it, how much more you will hurt other people.

Not only do we hurt other people, but we also get hurt by others. We don’t remember well the pain that we caused in others, but we remember vividly the pain we received from others. There is no hurt that is not painful. It doesn’t matter how small, maybe all the hurts are painful, maybe or hurt often ourself that is deep within gets wounded. When we are hurt. we feel like I’m nobody. They make me feel that way. When you heard they feel like I’m a pitiful an existence. Our dignity gets crushed and our self-worth is taken away from us and we get thrown into the deep darkness and we even doubt about ourselves. Our damaged itself, distorted image and the dark shadow will torment us and we get angry and we lose ourselves. That’s why the cross is dangerous because you lose yourself if you’re not careful. They tried to get rid of anything beautiful from Jesus. He could not just kill Jesus. They had to kill you just as a condemned person. They did not just want to kill Jesus. They wanted to condemn Jesus and let people know that he died because of his own curse. That’s what they wanted to do. They trampled on Jesus integrity and took away any importance left in him. That was the cross.

Most of us maybe we actually experienced the cross will get devastated, will be devastated. Will not be able to survive. A lot of us will lose ourselves. We may not be able to stand up again once we experienced that kind of cross in our lives. Somehow, Jesus was different even though people try to take away dignity from him. He had that dignity intact. He was confident. He didn’t lose himself. He did not bow down before their insults and humiliation. They took everything from Jesus, but they cannot destroy the soul. They took away everything from Jesus and they crushed everything Jesus said, but they cannot destroy the soul, the core existence of Jesus.

I think the key is verse 8 and 9. When we read again verse 8 and 9, it shows us why he was able to have that confidence. He who vindicates me is near. He is God. Who will contend with me? Let us stand up together. Who are my adversaries? Let them confront me. It is the Lord who helps me, who declare me, who will declare me guilty. He had confidence in God. When you have confidence in God, you can have confidence in yourself and no one can crush you. Once we have confidence in God, no one can take away your dignity. We don’t get. We won’t get affected so much by what people say to us, about us. How people treat me is not the most important thing that we worry about anymore. We don’t get affected by what others do to us anymore. We can be confident and strong. As we live our lives. Yes, we meet all kinds of people. The thing is we cannot change them. Can you not expect them to be changed? Well, we can continuously get hurt and when your soul is damaged by them, that’s not right. We need to build the core in our identity and I think that’s what God can give us, when we have confidence in God, even though they may hurt us, they should not destroy. They will not be able to destroy our soul.

The world condemned Jesus as being wrong, but Jesus’ resurrection prove the world wrong. God knows us and when we have confidence in God, we can embrace people’s criticisms. That’s hard. That’s hard, but when we have confidence in God, then we can embrace people’s criticisms. If there is something wrong with us that we repent and change, but if they misunderstand me, even that we can embrace their misunderstanding and we can move on with life. We can on with life. We don’t live anymore by what other people say about me or how other people treat me. I have my way because God gives me that confidence. Don’t ever forget that you are beloved, beautiful children, children of God. Instead of reacting to our situations and to what people do to us, we live with confidence in God and in ourselves. Don’t pay evil for evil. When we have confidence about God, we don’t need to pay evil for evil. We will pay evil for good. That is the power of the cross and will serve without a feeling of pity. We will serve others and love others with confidence. That’s what Jesus did. That is the power of the cross. They can not humiliate me anymore.

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John 1:43-50

(*We apologize for the audio quality, as it was extracted from a video recording.)

{Transcript}

I find a curiosity people to be quite attractive. There’s something that’s very pure about it and we see a lot of this in children. They feel no shame about asking or saying whatever’s on their minds. If something arouses curiosity, there is no stopping them. They will see it to the end no matter the cost. I see going into a lot of trouble as a kid because of this. If I was told not to touch your press, something, I had to find out why I was told not to do that. Yet, it seems that as we get older, we lose the capacity to be curious, we stop asking questions and we draw conclusions instead. Or even if you’re curious about things, we don’t seem to show as much as we do to others and keep it to ourselves and perhaps it’s because we deemed acceptable when you’re a little but unusual, even annoying to others when you’re adults. Because of that, we become more formal, less open and less expressive.

In today’s age of information overload and instant gratification. I feel like we’ve ceased to be a people who are curious, especially about those around us. Rather than curiosity there is indifference and we seem to be more isolated than ever before and I’ve forgotten what it is to really relate to one another. In a way its not what the Internet and the social media have done. And it is passive. There is no active engagement and instead of going to the actual person, we rely on information that is made available about the person and from that information we make assumptions and judgments and we’d let those assumptions and judgements be our guiding principle. So we live under the illusion that we’d know them when in reality we really don’t know a thing or two about them and I believe this is the idea that is challenged in today’s passage. Nathaniel was no different. He thought he knew a thing or two about Christ.

When Phil, he invites him to go see this man who the prophets wrote about in the Old Testament. He replies by saying, can anything good come out of Nazareth? Nazareth was an insignificant village. So to Nathaniel, the idea that the messiah would come from such a place was a bit ridiculous. It made no sense, but what I find more interesting here is how Phillip counters this question from Nathanial. He doesn’t even bother trying to convince them logically. Instead, he simply says, come and see. When you think about it. It’s a brilliant way of answering questions by not answering it. At the same time; come and see.

I wonder why Philip might’ve said this because earlier in your chapter we found that Jesus says the same thing to other disciples who asked him where he’s staying. It says, when Jesus turned and saw them following, he said to them, what are you looking for? They said to him, rabbi, which translated means teacher, where are you staying? He said to them, come and see. They came and saw where he was staying and they remained with him that day. They came and saw and they remained. That’s all that the writer tells us. We have no idea what the disciples saw, but we know what they was enough for them to stay with Jesus from then on. The same sense of mystery carries into Phillips encounter with Jesus. All that Jesus tells him is to follow him and he does, and the next thing we know is that he goes to Nathaniel and invites him to do the same. Again, with no explanation.

He leaves the choice in Nathaniel’s hands either to confront his own assumptions or to remain where he is. As I was reflecting on this, I was very much reminded of the experience I had in Cuba last month. A few Sunday ago, Simon shared about his reflections on our trip from Knox, but some people came up to me afterwards and asked me about my thoughts on the trip as well, so I thought it’d be fitting to share them with you on as part of today’s message. Although it was a wonderful trip, not only for myself but for all the students that went on it It impacted each and every one of us in ways that we did not expect, but in the weeks leading up to the trip, I sensed this unspoken sentiment for a lot of us in class, which was is this really necessary? After all the triples happening during one of the busier times in our studies and if not worse over the reading week and besides some of us was also in ministry and families.

So we made a that a lot to catch up after we got back and if part of our preparation for the trip, we read different materials about Cuba and their history and also a mission, but the question still lingered, is this really necessary? And 2 particular experiences there answered this question. So fast forward to the first Sunday there were there. We attended a service at a Presbyterian Church that was located about 20 minutes away from Havana. Just before to service beginning. I noticed that the back door of the sanctuary was opened or wide open, so I decided to sort of step outside for a little bit because it was a bit stuffy in the church. It was almost surreal and strange, was that the very moment I step down onto the sidewalk of the neighbourhood. I felt that I had stepped out into a whole other world. I was actually originally to show a picture that I took, but I thought maybe a short video clip might do better. So I prepared something for you, watch it first.

That’s where I was standing and I just take a short video and it just panned it. You hear the dogs barking, the smell, the noise, the air. Everything just felt different. I felt like I was finally in Cuba because the comfort and the convenience of being at the hotel and doing the sightseeing of the city. It was nice. It was nice, but I felt like those things sort of kept the sheltered in a way. So after lunch we had about a half hour break till we had to attend like some sort of a seminar. So I went for a little rendezvous around the area. We were advised to move around in pairs for safety reasons, but I decided to sneak out alone. So I begin by walking down the street with no plan in mind. I randomly turned a few corners and passed by some houses. I’ve looked into some of them through the windows and saw families sitting inside just hanging out, watching TV and kids playing Lego, but the most memorable moment from that walk was coming across this scene.

A woman crouching by a garbage dump, sorting through some things. I’ll just walking in saw this and seen this in that instant. Hit me in such a way that I could not articulate in words. You could say poor or whatever. It just doesn’t begin to sum up what that experience was like and to me this was the reality and ironically witnessing something like this at the time. The seminar that I attended afterwards, which was on Cuban life and family, would not have made one bit of sense to me. It would have been just the facts. And the third picture. I’m gonna show you a was taken at a school in Matanzas, which was where we stayed for the remainder of the trip, so if you go over to the other side, that’s like the baseball field and whatnot, so I with all the students from Knox, I wasn’t alone at this time and Simon was there too and while we were out for a walk in the neighborhood, we came across a group of kids playing baseball out of school.

At first we stood by and watched the game for a little bit while some of the kids were sitting far, noticed us and begin to talk amongst themselves. We were as exotic to them, as they were exotic to us and I think for a lot of us at that moment the initial instinct was through observe a little, do not engage and walk away, but instead we the Canadians decided to fit ourselves amongst the kids. Nothing happened for awhile. No conversation. Everyone just watched a game, but i could sense there was this kid sitting beside me glancing over as if you’re going to say something and you could tell by the little smirk he had on his face. So at one point with my little knowledge of Spanish I asked him what his name was “Como te llamas.” he tells me his name and all it took was that one simple question that broke the ice instantly and made this kid blossom with smile and laughter. And before we knew it, he was calling his friends over and I was speaking in charades with them, and I look nothing like Jackie Chan, but they kept saying, “Oh, Rush Hour! Rush Hour!”

And Simon was on the other hand, he was invited to play baseball with them and he was to them “El Chino,” which is “Chinese” and Spanish. And Simon actually afterwards I asked caused you know actually, these kids are really good at baseball. So if he’d got some of them to come and join, your softball team will be the first place I guarantee you. And what happened was yes, they asked Simon to play, but they just didn’t let him play. They put him through like hoops, like a three stages of tryouts. So first they haven’t had him throw the ball. He didn’t tell you guys this when he preached last week, two weeks ago, they didn’t throw the ball first and didn’t bat. And then on third one they put him on the first base. And then Simon came up to me afterwards the game, and was like, “I got put on the first base, you know what that means?” And I don’t know, a lot of about sports like what does that mean? He’s like, “That means I suck.”

What began as an intentional act of sitting down with them rather than away from them, ended up really becoming be experience for us in our entire trip. Again, reading and studying could have amounted to the kind of reality we’re exposed to in that brief time together and as the students we still talk about amongst ourselves even nowadays of how invaluable the entire experience was. So to answer the question was it necessary? Yes. More so than that. Come and see what a profound statement it is because it tells us that without going there’s no sea and unless we go and see, we simply will new knowing that comes from knowledge, but there’s also knowing that comes from the actual encounter with the thing itself. And that’s the thing I believe that brings about true transformation and all of us, but it all begins from a place of curiosity.

And I believe that is the quality that Jesus honoured in Nathaniel. He certainly had his assumptions, but that didn’t stop him from going to see Jesus. He had his doubts, but he’s far from indifferent and he was genuinely curious and that came from his heart. He was in the actual going in encountering Jesus that Nathaniel was able to know him as the son of God. The son of God who saw him when he sat alone under the fig tree and affirmed him for who us. So may we be a community of people who never lose that sense of curiosity. People are willing to question their assumptions and judgements, and I prayed out of our genuine interest for one another. We’d be able to have deep and meaningful conversation and encounters that remind us of God’s Love, love that is willing to meet and know the other where they are and as they are.

Love that could be expressed in simple presence and touch. And that’s why I love this community and I haven’t even been here for that long. It’s like one big eclectic family care. Here, people are who they are and they’re embraced for being who they are. And I see this all the way from adult congregation down to a youth and children. Last weekend, our Hi-C’s had their annual march break retreat and each year there always seems to be a student who is very adamant on not coming. So it forces me to try to, you know, try every method of persuasion in the book sometimes to the point of deploying the most extroverted students in the Hi-C to try to get them to come. I understand. They may be new to the church and find the big crowds at retreats overwhelming and intimidating. But by God’s grace they all ended up coming and are transformed by the love and inclusion they experienced in the community.

And usually every year on the last time we started thinking this candlelight sharing where we just express what’s on our thoughts. And there’s one word that just comes up every single time. Thankful for the community. And as a pastor, saying that is one of the great joys of ministry. So today, I know it might be a little awkward, but I want to invite you guys to look around. People beside you, behind you. No seriously try. Go. Beside you. Behind you. In front of you. Take a good look at them. I mean you’ve known you probably known some of them for awhile but really see each and every one of them is an invitation to really come and see. So maybe I’ll go forth today and see things God will do that are greater than we can ever imagine.

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Psalm 107:17-22

Today’s scripture passage talks about becoming fools. Some became fools through their rebellious ways. Some became fools. Because they became fools, they suffered affliction, they even lost the appetite, and they were drawn near the gates of death. Because they became fools they suffer so much. The life is just full of suffering, continuous, repetitive suffering, struggle and hardship. Life is supposed to be enjoyed. Life supposed to be good, but because they have become fools, they don’t even enjoy life. They just survive. They just persevere through life rather than really enjoying the fullness of life because they have become fools. And I wonder why people become fools. I think these people are not stupid. I think they’re intelligent people, smart people. These are Jewish people. I think they are, have a high intelligence, and then why they have become fools and suffer so much. So meditating on this, I realized that becoming fool has nothing to do with your intelligence or the kind of intelligence or the level of education. We can be fools while we are being very smart. So that kind of intelligence does not really help us living a life. Being a fool is not lack of intellectual ability.

I think there’s different kinds of intelligence. There’s intelligence that makes your life happy, enjoyable, and a good and all that stuff. But there’s intelligence that has nothing to do with a that just performance, doing well in job or whatever, a technical stuff, but there’s also intelligence that makes the whole life good and a happy and meaningful and all that. There are different intelligences. Sometimes we call it a wisdom. Being wise in that kind of intelligence is a combination of a ethical quality, intellectual ability, and even spiritual quality. That wisdom kind of intelligence consists of all of these three. But being smart is different from that. We see many smart people, I see many smart people around me but not many wise ones. It is that kind of intelligence that gives us. It gives our life good. So I wonder why? What makes smart people fools? What makes smart people fools? What blinds their eyes not to see what they’re supposed to see. I meditate on it and this word came up to me. That is greed. Greed. Greed makes a smart person a fool. Greed blinds our eyes not to be able to see what you’re supposed to see. When greed works in people, even though they may be very smart, they will become fools. The result is very bad.

When greed is taken away from your eyes, only then you can see. But when is the greed taken off from your eyes? Only when you suffer. When you suffer so much and you tell yourself, I was so stupid, I was so fool. Only then the greed is taken off from your eyes and you see yourself. Greed makes people really fool. I believe that the smartest person in the world is Jesus Christ. He was the smartest person. When I read his writing and the wisdom and all that stuff, he was the smartest person. Deep inside of us, he was able to see through, but there’s one thing that he didn’t have. The smartest man in the did not have one thing. You know what? That one thing is?

Lack of greed makes you smarter. Jesus did not have one thing and that was greed. The cross is a symbol of no greed. Cross symbolizes it. All the greed of human humanity is crucified on the Cross. That’s what cross is, lack of greed. That’s what cross is, but smart people so supposed to be smart people called that stupid, foolishness. They say Cross is foolishness and in St Paul saw that, this is what St. Paul said. “For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God.”

Strange, isn’t it? We think they are foolish people, but they think that the cross is foolishness, but the smartest person in the world, Jesus chose the way of the cross. I believe that he chose the way of the cross because he was smart because he was smart. He chose the way of the cross and I wonder why did he choose the cross? Why did he choose the cross? The smartest man in the world chose the cross. Why? When all the smart people say the cross is foolishness and I realized that Jesus knew that the only way to experience God’s power is to let go of greed. That’s only way you can experience God’s power. If you don’t let go of greed, you cannot experience God’s power. God’s power can be only experience when you let go of greed. I thank God for that. What if God gave the God’s power to the greedy people? What the world would that be? But somehow God hid his power to the people who are greedy.

The power of Resurrection, is hidden in the cross. Only through the cross we can experience the power of the resurrection. People who live with greed will never experienced God’s power. Rather they all become victims and slaves of their own greed and the result is destruction. The result is destruction. They think they are so smart they can take care of their lives, but at the end that is the end is destruction.

On one side of the coin you see greed, but on the flip side of the coin, what you see is fear and insecurity. You have fear to see your own emptiness, your own bankruptcy within yourself. There’s nothing inside you. This fear you replace with greed having more, keeping more, being better than others. There’s a fear that what if my kids fall behind? What if I’m not loved and liked by others? What if I don’t make it? What if I don’t have enough? All this fear, they fill it with greed, so behind the greed, I see fear, worries, mistrust of oneself, anxiety about life comparison and so on. Greed will never give us true satisfaction. Greet by nature is insatiable. We’ll never understand the truth that if you lose it, you’ll find it. If you’ll find it, you’ll lose it. That’s the life truth that Jesus taught us. You try to gain it, you will lose it, but if you let go, you’ll find it. That truth of life, they’ll never understand what it is and they’ll never be content. In other words, still never be happy. Living with greed, we can never be happy. It doesn’t matter how much money you have, how big your house is, how great your car is. It doesn’t matter what it is, but you will never be happy.

As long as you live on greed, you replace the happiness with all these things I call that I call this stupid. St. Paul’s life was very different from the life of greed. This is what he said, “not that I’m referring to being in need for. I’ve learned to be content. He learned to be content with whatever I have. I know what it is to have little and I know what it is to have plenty in any and all circumstances. I have learned the secret of being well fed or of going hungry, of having plenty and of being in need.” I called that smart. I call that happy life. He’s happy and he’s so big that circumstances don’t determine his happiness, he’s so satisfied. He’s so content. Doesn’t matter whether he has a lot or not. I call that real smart. Greed will lead us into dissatisfaction, complaints and corruption ultimately. There’s a lot of whatever is going on in Korea right now, not only North America, all the big guys are just. They are taken into prison. There are smart people. They are smart to get to the top of the society and yet greed swallowed them up. The end is destruction.

The Psalms warns us today, becoming fools, we suffer affliction, lose appetite, and draw near the gate of death. My friends, living with greed is not fun. It’s not fun. It’s very difficult. It is never fulfilling. There is always dissatisfaction. Always complaining. From the mouth of the people with greed. All we hear is “I wish.” We don’t hear, “Thank you.” From their mouth, we don’t hear. “Thank you.” All we hear is: “I wish.” I wish better house. I wish better car. I wish more money. I wish more promotion. Always. I wish. Doesn’t matter where they are. They will die with I wish. Let us not feed our greed. Culture that feeds on greed is not a good culture. I don’t think we live in a such a good culture. Capitalism is not really the best thing for humanity. All the commercials they just create more cravings, more greed, so the kind of world that we live in, the kind of culture we are in a really good culture. We have to be aware of that. We have to be smart enough to see that it’s not a good culture.

Letters in a feed on greed. Let us discipline our ourselves of letting go of our greed. Learn to let go of you greed. Let us be satisfied with small things that we already have and if we enjoy. Our children. Our good home. Good weather. Good people around you. Good community. It doesn’t cost that much money. They are there. Just beautiful as they are. With thanksgiving let us enjoy our lives and live the best we can ever have. Live the best life we can ever have. As we let go of our greed, somehow we’ve regained the appetite. That can be the problem for me. Too much appetite. Too much food. Too much eat. But as you let go of greed, appetite comes back not only appetite of food but of life. We’ll find new energy that comes from within us. If we live our life with fear before now, we can live with love. Don’t be awaken after you lose everything. Now be awakened and change lifestyle. You know, once you let go of greed, you know what happens. Greed turns into vision and dream. Wonderful. Greed is for myself, but the vision and dreams are for others and you start having this vision and dream for living for others.

We may be busier but we’ll experience the joy and satisfaction we never experienced before. St Paul and Jesus, I mean talking a little bit, busy life. They live a busy life probably busier than any of you. They live a busy life and yet they were filled with satisfaction and joy and peace. The other day in, New York Times. This hedgefund trader. He wrote an article, he said he got $3.5 million as a bonus and then he was complaining that he didn’t get enough and then he wrote it. “This is crazy. I’m addicted. This is not good.” So he wrote his article repenting about his own situation. That’s not a good life. I mean $3.5 million bonus. You complain about that? Then that’s real foolishness. Greed is not good. 1987 movie Wall Street, the Gekko, that guy, “greed is good.” Greed is what moves us, and then he gives us a new civilization. All that stuff. BS. Greed is not good. Greed makes us blind, takes away the energy and oppresses us, but once we let go of our greed, new life will begin. We will see the brighter side of life. I guarantee that. Future will look promising. We’ll be able to see clearly the purpose of life and meaning of everything comes alive. Life comes alive. Greed is like dirty poison. It doesn’t kill you right away, but it slowly kills you. It comes in and slowly permeates through all throughout all existence and we’ve just become greedy people and unhappy people. It always lies. It always gives false promise that I’ll make your life happy. No, it will never make our life happy; is lie.

Let us be wise by letting go of our greed and finding the true beauty of life. That’s what smart people do. Be Smart People. You have intelligence, but be smart people, really smart people. Only when you let go of your greed, then, only then, we’ll be smarter. Let us sing together.

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